of age. Do you require further
details?"

"No," said the Tracer; "please ring off."

Then he called up General Information. "I want the Museum of
Inscriptions. Get me their number, please." After a moment: "Is this the
Museum of Inscriptions?"

* * * * *

"Is Professor Boggs there?"

* * * * *

"Is this Professor Boggs?"

* * * * *

"Could you find time to decipher an inscription for me at once?"

* * * * *

"Of course I know you are extremely busy, but have you no assistant who
could do it?"

* * * * *

"What did you say her name is? Miss Inwood?"

* * * * *

"Oh! And will the young lady translate the inscription at once if I send
a copy of it to her by messenger?"

* * * * *

"Thank you very much, Professor. I will send a messenger to Miss Inwood
with a copy of the inscription. Good-by."

He hung up the receiver, turned thoughtfully, opened the door again, and
walked into the sunlit living room.

"Look here!" cried the Captain in a high state of excitement. "I've got
a lot of numbers out of it already."

"Wonderful!" murmured the Tracer, looking over the young man's broad
shoulders at a sheet of paper bearing these numbers:

9--14--5--22--5--18--19--1--23--25--15--21--2--21--20--15--14--3--5--
9--12--15--22--5--25--15--21--5--4--9--20--8--9--14--23--15--15--4.

"Marvelous!" repeated the Tracer, smiling. "Now what _do_ you suppose
those numbers can stand for?"

"Letters!" announced the Captain triumphantly. "Take the number nine,
for example. The ninth letter in the alphabet is I! Mr. Keen, suppose we
try writing down the letters according to that system!"

"Suppose we do," agreed the Tracer gravely.

So, counting under his breath, the young man set down the letters in the
following order, not attempting to group them into words:

INEVERSAWYOUBUTONCEILOVEYOUEDITHINWOOD.

Then he leaned back, excited, triumphant.

"There you are!" he said; "only, of course, it makes no sense." He
examined it in silence, and gradually a hopeless expression effaced the
animation. "How the deuce am I going to separate that mass of letters
into words?" he muttered.

"This way," said the Tracer, smilingly taking the pencil from his
fingers, and he wrote: I--NEVER--SAW--YOU--BUT--ONCE. I--LOVE